Page 46 of Forgive Me Not
‘Passable,’ he replied, and wiped his lips.
Briefly both their mouths quirked up. For a few seconds it had seemed just like the good times. Andrea came in, took off her boots and headed up to the bathroom. The loo flushed, and when she came back down, Emma offered her a muffin.
‘No thanks,’ she said without looking, and took a tube of mints out of her pocket. She picked up her boots and returned outside.
‘Perhaps she’ll have one later,’ said Bligh, who had come through to the kitchen.
‘Maybe.’ Emma kept her tone bright.
He stared. ‘What pushed you to finally get yourself sorted? You must have known it would be tough coming back.’
Emma put down the tea cloth. ‘I got pregnant.’
There. She’d said it.
‘What?’
‘It was as much of a surprise to me.’
‘But… I don’t understand. I mean… where’s…?’ He leant against the wall.
‘I lost the baby. But the pregnancy had to mean something, right? So I used it to help me focus on becoming a better person.’
‘And you faced that alone?’ His teeth clenched together.
Gail pottered, taking mugs out of the cupboard and putting them back.
‘I managed.’
‘What about the father?’
Emma looked down.
‘You should have got in touch. Despite everything, I’d have helped you.’ He stepped forward and hugged her tight.
How Emma had craved such an embrace during those months in the city – but now she could see that was only because a hug from Bligh usually meant he was about to solve yet another of her problems. She no longer needed that escape from facing up to managing her own life.
She didn’t doubt that Bligh would have been the perfect person to help in such a situation – he’d wanted a family for so long now, and would have stepped in and raised the child as his own. He had so many good qualities, all underpinned by a sense of decency. It was strange. He got that from his mum, who’d been an active member of the community. She’d often taken part in charity events, and had helped out on the farm more than once if Gail, Andrea or Emma fell sick. But then she’d left Bligh’s dad for a younger man and no one in the village understood why – except, years later, Bligh. He’d cleared up Emma’s mess yet again, paying for a shop window she’d smashed in the village, and had muttered something about how he now understood how being in love made people do things they’d never once have been able to imagine.
Dash crawled out from under the table and pricked up his ears.
‘That’s barking. It must be the Duchess. Stig is here,’ said Emma.
The doorbell rang.
‘Could you answer that, Bligh, and I’ll take Mum out to the yard. If you could send Stig around the side of the farmhouse…’
The back door creaked as Emma led Gail outside, Dash charging ahead to meet his friend. Stig appeared with Bligh following him. A white bandage was wrapped around his head and he wore a camouflage T-shirt. Emma had seen him first thing when he’d dropped by the pet shop to pick up his dog. The hospital had given him some clean clothes. Due to the surgical dressing, he couldn’t wear his woolly hat.
‘Where’s Tilly?’ she said.
Stig exhaled. ‘She’s done a runner. I went up to the station. Nothing. She must have been worried that one of us was going to report her.’
Emma’s shoulders sank. ‘And Rita?’
‘I’ve just seen her – she sends her best. The fire last night… it hit her hard. Made her think about her family. She’s going back to the city to pay her parents a visit.’
‘What’s all that barking?’ called a distant voice, and Andrea appeared with a small shovel in her hand. Gail was sitting in her rocking chair, flicking through the curtain sample book.
